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Thursday, July 8, 2010

Summer Break 2010 has started and after one week off, we got the party started with our friends Cole and Becca Luke visiting from Ft. Worth, Texas. Cole is an old high school friend of mine and we haven't seen him since he and Becca got married down in Mexico in January of 2009. We were super-stoked to see them because not only were they going to hang with us in Germany for a few days........they were also going to join us on our trip to Italy!

It was the first time for Cole in Europe and Becca's first time in Germany so there was a lot of culture, sights, and food to squeeze into four days. They trusted us to be their tour guides for a few days and we gave it our best shot.....

Perfect timing........on their first day Germany played Argentina in the Quarterfinals of the World Cup. We went to this public viewing (it was an hour before, which explains the lack of a proper crowd) and later to a bar to watch the 4-0 waxing.

Everyone's a fan here.....especially during the World Cup!

We took a train up the Rhein River to St. Goar to catch this sick view - just before peeping an old castle and taking a boat cruise back down the Rhein.

Cole and I found the cannonball stash at the castle.

We got off the boat at Bacharach and took the time to sample some wine from this region. Germany makes a darn good riesling and this was a fun way to try a little of everything.

Cole had the form down for sampling wine.

On the third day we set out for a hike in the Taunus mountains near Koenigstein.

We finally made it down to Heidelberg - one of the most touristy little German towns known to Americans. It even has a Hard Rock Cafe! I guess it's famous because it survived the war rather unscathed, there's a huge castle to visit, the oldest university in Germany, and it's just a nice town to walk around. This is an old bridge across the Neckar River (same river that Tuebingen is on further south) as seen from the castle.

Marisa posing outside of the Heidelberg Castle.

Heidelberg Castle from the town.

Marisa and Becca in the town of Heidelberg.

So, we tried to give them a crash-course style Germany trip and that's what we came up with. They loved the food, the architecture, the train rides, and the little German towns. We were properly worn out before setting off on our big trip to Italy!